A number of small practitioners have rung me up recently to talk about their staffing needs. One in particular struck me with his lament. "I need a secretary, Dom, they are not called that anymore, right? I need someone to help keep my clients' confidential matters. I have been sitting on this for some time now, since Spring time." Prodded a little bit more on why they have not hired one, it seemed that the last few they have hired have fallen short of their expectations. "I hired Mary 25 years ago, when I was just starting my practice, she was the one who showed me the ropes. I have lost count on how many times she saved my bacon. She knew what was more important. She knew when to chime in, but for the most part, she just did her work. Quietly. Too bad she retired. The young ones are not like her. High maintenance."I could not help but think about Star Trek's resident Betazoid Deanna Troi, who possessed a high level of emotional empathy (EQ); she served as an effective counselor to Captain Picard. In the real world, EQ is harnessed over time, often just by working with the lawyer closely.

(Photo courtesy of www.startrek.com)

I acknowledged that they were right: finding someone who had a high EQ would be challenging, but the key is to design a concise and clear job description to reflect your expectations. I told them: "A good place to start is to analyze the job as it exists today. Ask yourself what the work outcomes and descriptions of the tasks to achieve the outcomes are. Next update it for what you would like job to look like. Consider your practice plans, are you expanding or contracting specific practice areas?"Lisa Dawson, having practiced as a small firm administrator for over 20 years, suggests that your job description should include:For more, read here.If you have staffing needs, check out our website here. Or connect with me.Here are the other courses this Fall:​

So we get a little intense in our trust accounting class when we talk about why law firms love banks. Or not. All those mistakes they make, despite what firm staff do from writing instructions to calling in advance, trust account instructions seem to fall on deaf ears. Errors continue to occur.

A week after presenting Trust Accounting 101, I was invited by the administrator of a small firm to talk about their human resources needs (Law Courts Center has begun helping firms recruit staff.) But before we could get into that conversation. my host just had to vent. A little.

Her trust account person had gone on her holidays, and so she took over operating the trust accounts. In a span of a week, her bank made two errors. Exasperated she said: "What a huge waste of time!"

She bemoaned their inability to pick up the phone to call someone in their branch because the bank recently moved their client services to Toronto. (Years ago, a branch manager told me that the most expensive part of banking is having a branch, and long bank hours are costly.)

The law firm has been doing business with their bank for decades; and despite the continuous bank fees increases, the service levels keep declining, they just put up with it. I suggested cutting the umbilical cord. My host replied: "Our managing partner won't go for it!"

First, let me address the Division 7 matter. As trust funds are the clients money, every penny must be accounted for.So I asked LSBC Trust Assurance Audit Team Leader Tina Kaminski , one of our co-instructors, these 3 questions.

What happens to all the letters that you get from a firm that reports a Division 7 error?

Has a firm ever been penalized because they have too much, even if a significant portion of the errors were caused by their bank?